About the Deacon Bloggers

Maria Henson ('82), a Pulitzer Prize winner and a 1994 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, worked at newspapers until 2009. After living in Botswana, she returned to the Reynolda Campus to oversee the Wake Forest Magazine, teach and share the notable tales of Demon Deacons.

Inside Out: Wake … A documentary

Just before 11 p.m. last night, one of my students, Kovi Konowiecki, a soccer player and kind-hearted junior from Long Beach, Calif., sent me an email about the latest triumph for him and his two classmates, sophomore Lindsay Hudson Ortyn and junior Sean Wilkinson.

The three surprised the campus in March when they worked with friends all night to paste the photographs of five upperclassmen from different backgrounds on the wall overlooking Manchester Plaza, aka Mag Quad. The photos depicted students the artists said showed “the well-rounded Wake Forest community” and embodied Pro Humanitate.

We awoke one morning to find this art on Mag Quad

The public art display was scheduled to remain for two weeks on the wall, but its popularity led the powers-that-be to allow it to stay up until the rainy weather had its way, shredding and curling the images. I hated to see it go. It was fresh and edgy, and I loved that it was a surprise for the campus, initiated and organized by our students.

Now there is a film that explains its inspiration, the motivation of the students who were photographed and the all-nighter pasting party. (All this was happening as the artists juggled their regular course load.)

“We have put a lot of passion and sleepless nights into the making of this documentary, and we hope to make an impact on the Wake community and world at large,” Kovi wrote me last night. “Even though it is 15 minutes, definitely watch the entire thing. It will be well worth your time.”

Regard the faces of Wake Forest and the creativity of an idealistic band of students who had a collective vision and brought it to life. My takeaway: the faces of this campus reflect the world and, through it all, a Wake Forest heritage of heart. Exhibit one is a band of three artists.